# Scientific Advertising  ## Metadata - Author: [[Claude Hopkins and Byron Maxim]] - Full Title: Scientific Advertising - Category: #books ## Highlights - We learn the principles and prove them by repeated tests. This is done through keyed advertising, by traced returns, largely using coupons. We compare one way with many others, backward and forward, and record the results. When one method invariably proves best, that method becomes a fixed principle. ([Location 129](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=129)) - Mail order advertising is traced down to the fraction of a penny. The cost per reply and cost per dollar of sale show up with utter exactness. ([Location 132](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=132)) - In lines where direct returns are impossible, we compare one town with another. Scores of methods may be compared in this way, measured by cost of sales. But the most common way is by use of the coupon. We offer a sample, a book, a free package, or something to induce direct replies. Thus, we learn the amount of action which each ad engenders. ([Location 137](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=137)) - One ad may bring too many worthless replies, another replies that are valuable. So our final conclusions are always based on cost per customer or cost per dollar of sale. ([Location 141](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=141)) - Advertising is salesmanship. Its principles are the principles of salesmanship. Successes and failures in both lines are due to like causes. Thus every advertising question should be answered by the salesman’s standards. ([Location 187](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=187)) - Let us emphasize that point. The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales. It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. ([Location 190](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=190)) - The difference is only in degree. Advertising is multiplied salesmanship. It may appeal to thousands while the salesman talks to one. It involves a corresponding cost. Some people spend $10 per word on an average advertisement. Therefore every ad should be a super-salesman. ([Location 195](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=195)) - One must be able to express himself briefly, clearly and convincingly, just as a salesman must. But fine writing is a distinct disadvantage. So is unique literary style. They take attention from the subject. They reveal the hook. Any studied attempt to sell, if apparent, creates corresponding resistance. ([Location 203](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=203)) - There is one simple and right way to answer many advertising questions. Ask yourself, “Would this help a salesman sell the goods?” “Would it help me sell them if I met a buyer in person?” ([Location 212](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=212)) - Measure them by salesmen’s standards, not by amusement standards. Ads are not written to entertain. When they do, those entertainment seekers are little likely to be the people whom you want. That is one of the greatest advertising faults. Ad writers abandon their parts. They forget they are salesmen and try to be performers. Instead of sales, they seek applause. ([Location 231](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=231)) - When you plan or prepare an advertisement, keep before you a typical buyer. Your subject, your headline has gained his or her attention. Then in everything be guided by what you would do if you met the buyer face-to-face. If you are a normal man and a good salesman you will then do your level best. Don’t think of people in the mass. That gives you a blurred view. Think of a typical individual, man or woman, who is likely to want what you sell. ([Location 235](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=235)) - Some advertising men go out in person and sell to people before they plan or write an ad. One of the ablest of them has spent weeks on one article, selling from house to house. In this way they learn the reactions from different forms of argument and approach. They learn what possible buyers want and the factors which don’t appeal. It is quite customary to interview hundreds of possible customers. ([Location 241](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=241)) - The advertising man studies the consumer. He tries to place himself in the position of the buyer. His success largely depends on doing that to the exclusion of everything else. ([Location 249](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=249)) - The best ads ask no one to buy. That is useless. Often they do not quote a price. They do not say that dealers handle the product. The ads are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information. They cite advantages to users. Perhaps they offer a sample, or to buy the first package, or to send something on approval, so the customer may prove the claims without any cost or risk. ([Location 262](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=262)) - The good salesman does not merely cry a name. He doesn’t say, “Buy my article.” He pictures the customer’s side of his service until the natural result is to buy. ([Location 267](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=267)) - A brush maker has some 2,000 canvassers who sell brushes from house to house. He is enormously successful in a line which would seem very difficult. And it would be if his men asked the housewives to buy. But they don’t. They go to the door and say, “I was sent here to give you a brush. I have samples here and I want you to take your choice.” The housewife is all smiles and attention. In picking out one brush she sees several she wants. She is also anxious to reciprocate the gift. So the salesman gets an order. ([Location 269](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=269)) - In mail order advertising there is no waste of space. Every line is utilized. Borders are rarely used. Remember that when you are tempted to leave valuable space unoccupied. ([Location 322](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=322)) - Mail order advertising usually contains a coupon. That is there to get some action from the converts partly made. It is there to cut out as a reminder of something the reader has decided to do. ([Location 326](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=326)) - A man advertised an incubator to be sold by mail. Type ads with right headlines brought excellent returns. But he conceived the idea that a striking picture would increase those returns. So he increased his space 50 percent to add a row of chickens in silhouette. It did make a striking ad, but his cost per reply was increased by exactly that 50 percent. The new ad, costing one-half more for every insertion, brought not one added sale. The man learned that incubator buyers were practical people. They were looking for attractive offers, not for pictures. ([Location 338](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=338)) - THE difference between advertising and personal sales-manship lies largely in personal contact. The salesman is there to demand attention. He cannot well be ignored. The advertisement can be ignored. ([Location 380](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=380)) - The purpose of a headline is to pick out people you can interest. You wish to talk to someone in a crowd. So the first thing you say is, “Hey there, Bill Jones” to get the right person’s attention. So in an advertisement. What you have will interest certain people only, and for certain reasons. You care only for those people. Then create a headline which will hail those people only. ([Location 384](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=384)) - Perhaps a blind headline or some clever conceit will attract many times as many. But they may consist of mostly impossible subjects for what you have to offer. And the people you are after may never realize that the ad refers to something they may want. ([Location 388](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=388)) - People will not be bored in print. They may listen politely at a dinner table to boasts and personalities, life history, etc. But in print they choose their own companions, their own subjects. They want to be amused or benefited. They want economy, beauty, labor savings, good things to eat and wear. There may be products which interest them more than anything else in the magazine. But they will never know it unless the headline or the picture tells them. ([Location 406](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=406)) - The writer of this chapter spends far more time on headlines than on writing. He often spends hours on a single headline. Often scores of headlines are discarded before the right one is selected. For the entire return from an ad depends on attracting the right sort of readers. The best of salesmanship has no chance whatever unless we get a hearing. ([Location 410](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=410)) - The vast difference in headlines is shown by keyed returns which this book advocates. The identical ad run with various headlines differs tremendously in its returns. It is not uncommon for a change in headlines to multiply returns from five to ten times over. ([Location 413](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=413)) - You are presenting an ad to millions. Among them is a percentage, small or large, whom you hope to interest. Go after that percentage and try to strike the chord that responds. If you are advertising corsets, men and children don’t interest you. If you are advertising cigars, you have no use for non- smokers. Razors won’t attract women, rouge will not interest men. Don’t think that those millions will read your ads to find out if your product interests. They will decide by a glance—by your headline or your pictures. Address the people you seek, and them only. ([Location 436](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=436)) - THE competent advertising man must understand psychology. The more he knows about it the better. He must learn that certain effects lead to certain reactions and use that knowledge to increase results and avoid mistakes. ([Location 445](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=445)) - In the same way it is found that an offer limited to a certain class of people is far more effective than a general offer. For instance, an offer limited to veterans of the war. Or to members of a lodge or sect. Or to executives. Those who are entitled to any seeming advantage will go a long way not to lose that advantage. ([Location 484](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=484)) - There is a great deal in mental impression. Submit five articles exactly alike and five people may each choose one of them. But point out in one some qualities to notice and everyone will find them. The five people then will all choose the same article. ([Location 501](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=501)) - An identical offer made in a different way may bring multiplied returns. ([Location 524](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=524)) - PLATITUDES and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from a duck. They leave no impression whatever. To say, “Best in the world,” “Lowest price in existence,” etc., is[1] at best simply claiming the expected. But superlatives of that sort are usually damaging. They suggest looseness of expression, a tendency to exaggerate, a careless truth. ([Location 530](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=530)) - But a man who makes a specific claim is either telling the truth or a lie. People do not expect an advertiser to lie. They know that he can’t lie in the best mediums. The growing respect in advertising has largely come through a growing regard for its truth. So a definite statement is usually accepted. Actual figures are not generally discounted. Specific facts, when stated, have their full weight and effect. This is very important to consider in written or personal salesmanship. The weight of an argument may often be multiplied by making it specific. Say that a tungsten lamp gives more light than a carbon and you leave some doubt. Say it gives three and one-third times the light and people realize that you have made tests and comparisons. ([Location 538](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=538)) - All claims were such as any brewer might have made. They were mere essentials in ordinary brewing. But he was the first to tell the people about them, while others cried merely “pure beer.” He made the greatest success that was ever made in beer advertising. ([Location 569](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=569)) - No generality has any weight whatever. It is like saying, “How do you do?” when you have no intention of inquiring about one’s health. But specific claims when made in print are taken at their value. ([Location 578](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=578)) - WHATEVER claim you use to gain attention, the advertisement should tell a story reasonably complete. ([Location 585](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=585)) - When you once get a person’s attention, then is the time to accomplish all you ever hope with him. Bring all your good arguments to bear. Cover every phase of your subject. One fact appeals to some, one to another. Omit any one and a certain percentage will lose the fact which might convince. ([Location 590](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=590)) - In every ad consider only new customers. People using your product are not going to read your ads. They have already read and decided. You might advertise month after month to present users that the product they use is poison, and they would never know it. So never waste one line of your space to say something to present users, unless you can say it in your headlines. Bear in mind always that you address an unconverted prospect. ([Location 603](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=603)) - Any reader of your ad is interested, else he would not be a reader. You are dealing with someone willing to listen. Then do your level best. That reader, if you lose him now, may never again be a reader. ([Location 607](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=607)) - You have a hard proposition. If you do not believe it, go to her in person and try to make the change. Not to merely buy a first package to please you, but to adopt your brand. A man who once does that at a woman’s door won’t argue for brief advertisements. He will never again say, “A sentence will do,” or a name or a claim or a boast. ([Location 628](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=628)) - Use pictures only to attract those who may profit you. Use them only when they form a better selling argument than the same amount of space set in type. ([Location 646](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=646)) - An eccentric picture may do you serious damage. One may gain attention by wearing a fool’s cap. But he would ruin his selling prospects. ([Location 664](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=664)) - A toothpaste may tend to prevent decay. It may also beautify teeth. Tests will probably find that the latter appeal is many times as strong as the former. The most successful toothpaste advertiser never features tooth troubles in his headlines. ([Location 748](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=748)) - Some claims not popular enough to feature in the main are still popular enough to consider. They influence a certain number of people—say one-fourth of your possible customers. Such a claim may be featured to advantage in a certain percentage of headlines. It should probably be included in every advertisement. But those are not things to guess at. They should be decided by actual knowledge, usually by traced returns. ([Location 759](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=759)) - AN ad-writer, to have a chance at success, must gain full information on his subject. The library of an ad agency should have books on every line that calls for research. A painstaking advertising man will often read for weeks on some problem which comes up. Perhaps in many volumes he will find few facts to use. But some one fact may be the keystone of success. ([Location 770](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=770)) - This writer has just completed an enormous amount of reading, medical and otherwise, on coffee. This to advertise a coffee without caffeine. One scientific article out of a thousand perused gave the keynote for that campaign. It was the fact that caffeine stimulation comes two hours after drinking. So the immediate bracing effects which people seek from coffee do not come from the caffeine. Removing caffeine does not remove the kick. It does not modify coffee’s delights, for caffeine is tasteless and odorless. ([Location 774](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=774)) - To advertise a toothpaste, this writer has also read many volumes of scientific matter dry as dust. But in the middle of one volume he found the idea which has helped make millions for that toothpaste maker. And has made this campaign one of the sensations of advertising. Genius is the art of taking pains. The advertising man who spares the midnight oil will never get very far. ([Location 780](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=780)) - It is often necessary in a line to learn the total expenditure. We must learn what a user spends a year, else we shall not know if users are worth the cost of getting. We must learn the total consumption, else we may overspend. We must learn the percentage of readers to whom our product appeals. We must often gather this data in classes. The percentage may differ on farms and in cities. The cost of advertising largely depends on the percentage of waste circulation. Thus an advertising campaign is usually preceded by a very large volume of data. Even an experimental campaign, for effective experiments cost a great deal of work and time. ([Location 802](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=802)) - THE product itself should be its own best salesman. Not the product alone, but the product plus a mental impression, an atmosphere, which you place around it. ([Location 892](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=892)) - A sample gets action. The reader of your ad may not be convinced to the point of buying. But he is ready to learn more about the product that you offer. So he cuts out a coupon, lays it aside and later mails it or presents it. Without that coupon he would soon forget. Then you have the name and address of an interested prospect. You can start him using your product. You can give him fuller information. You can follow him up. ([Location 900](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=900)) - You say that is expensive. So is it expensive to gain a prospect’s interest. It may cost you 50 cents to get the person to the point of writing for a sample. Don’t stop at 15 cents additional to make that interest valuable. ([Location 909](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=909)) - Putting a price on a sample greatly retards replies. Then it prohibits you from using the word “Free” in your ads. And that word “Free,” as we have stated, will generally more than pay for your samples. ([Location 921](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=921)) - Any keyed returns will clearly prove that such offers do not pay. Before a prospect is converted, it is approximately as hard to get half price for your article as to get the full price for it. ([Location 924](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=924)) - the cost of inquiries is usually enough to be important. Then don’t neglect them. Don’t stint your efforts with those you have half sold. An inquiry means that a prospect has read your story and is interested. He or she would like to try your product and learn more about it. Do what you would do if that prospect stood before you. ([Location 932](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=932)) - Give samples to interested people only. Give them only to people who exhibit that interest by some effort. Give them only to people whom you have told your story. First create an atmosphere of respect, a desire, an expectation. When people are in that mood, your sample will usually confirm the qualities you claim. ([Location 965](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=965)) - ALMOST any question can be answered, cheaply, quickly and finally, by a test campaign. And that’s the way to answer them—not by arguments around a table. Go to the court of last resort—the buyers of your product. ([Location 1039](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1039)) - Tags: [[blue]] - We establish averages on a small scale, and those averages always hold. We know our cost, we know our sale, we know our profit or our loss. We know how soon our cost comes back. Before we spread out, we prove our undertaking absolutely safe. So there are today no advertising disasters piloted by men who know. ([Location 1054](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1054)) - Tags: [[blue]] - On another product it may take three months to bring back the cost with a profit. But one is sure of his profit in that time. When he spreads out he must finance accordingly. Think what this means. A man has what he considers an advertising possibility. But national advertising looks so big and expensive that he dare not undertake it. Now he presents it in a few average towns, at a very moderate cost. With almost no risk whatever. From the few thousand he learns what the millions will do. Then he acts accordingly. If he then branches he knows to a certainty just what his results will be. He is playing on the safe side of a hundred to one shot. If the article is successful, it may make him millions. If he is mistaken about it, the loss is a trifle. ([Location 1064](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1064)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Your object in all advertising is to buy new customers at a price which pays a profit. You have no interest in centering trade at any particular store. Learn what your consumers cost and what they buy. If they cost you one dollar each, figure that every wasted dollar costs you a possible customer. ([Location 1139](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1139)) - Tags: [[blue]] - We try to give each advertiser a becoming style. We make him distinctive, perhaps not in appearance, but in manner and in tone. He is given an individuality best suited to the people he addresses. ([Location 1152](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1152)) - Tags: [[blue]] - That’s why we have signed ads sometimes—to give them a personal authority. A man is talking—a man who takes pride in his accomplishments—not a “soulless corporation.” Whenever possible we introduce a personality into our ads. By making a man famous we make his product famous. When we claim an improvement, naming the man who made it adds effect. ([Location 1158](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1158)) - Tags: [[blue]] - In successful advertising great pains are taken to never change our tone. That which won so many is probably the best way to win others. Then people come to know us. We build on that acquaintance rather than introduce a stranger in strange guise. People do not know us by name alone, but by looks and mannerisms. Appearing different every time we meet never builds up confidence. ([Location 1163](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1163)) - Tags: [[blue]] - TO attack a rival is never good advertising. Don’t point out others’ faults. It is not permitted in the best mediums. It is never good policy. The selfish purpose is apparent. It looks unfair, not sporty. If you abhor knockers, always appear a good fellow. Show the bright side, the happy and attractive side, not the dark and uninviting side of things. Show beauty, not homeliness; health, not sickness. Don’t show the wrinkles you propose to remove, but the face as it will appear. Your customers know all about wrinkles. ([Location 1178](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1178)) - Tags: [[blue]] - We are attracted by sunshine, beauty, happiness, health, success. Then point the way to them, not the way out of the opposite. Picture envied people, not the envious. Tell people what to do, not what to avoid. Make your every ad breathe good cheer. ([Location 1186](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1186)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Assume that people will do what you ask. Say, “Send now for this sample.” Don’t say, “Why do you neglect this offer?” That suggests that people are neglecting. Invite them to follow the crowd. ([Location 1191](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1191)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Experience generally shows that a two-cent letter gets no more attention than a one-cent letter. Fine stationery no more than poor stationery. The whole appeal lies in the matter. It has been found that fine stationery and pamphlets lessen the effect. They indicate an effort to sell on other lines than merit. That has the same effect in letters as in ads. ([Location 1226](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1226)) - Tags: [[blue]] - A letter which goes to an inquirer is like a salesman going to an interested prospect. You know what created that interest. Then follow it up along that line, not on some different argument. Complete the impression already created. Don’t undertake another on a guess. ([Location 1230](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1230)) - Tags: [[blue]] - In a letter as in ads, the great point is to get immediate action. People are naturally dilatory. They postpone, and a postponed action is too often forgotten. Do something if possible to get immediate action. Offer some inducement for it. Or tell what delay may cost. Note how many successful selling letters place a limit on an offer. It expires on a certain date. That is all done to get prompt decision, to overcome the tendency to delay. ([Location 1232](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1232)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Strike while the iron is hot. Get a decision then. Have it followed by prompt action when you can. You can afford to pay for prompt action rather than lose by delay. ([Location 1245](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1245)) - Tags: [[blue]] - THERE is great advantage in a name that tells a story. The name is usually prominently displayed. To justify the space it occupies, it should aid the advertising. Some such names are almost complete advertisements in themselves. May Breath is such a name. Cream of Wheat is another. That name alone has been worth a fortune. ([Location 1252](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1252)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Other coined names are meaningless. Some examples are Kodak, Karo, Sapolio, Vaseline, Kotex, Lux, Postum, etc. They can be protected, and long-continued advertising may give them a meaning. When this is accomplished they become very valuable. But the great majority of them never attain status. Such names do not aid the advertising. It is very doubtful that they justify display. The service of the product, not the name, is the important thing in advertising. A vast amount of space is wasted in displaying names and pictures which tell no selling story. The tendency of modern advertising is to eliminate waste. ([Location 1257](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1257)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Another serious fault in coined names is frivolity. In seeking uniqueness one gets something trivial. And that is a fatal handicap in a serious product. It almost prohibits respect. ([Location 1273](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1273)) - Tags: [[blue]] - When a product must be called by a common name, the best auxiliary name is a man’s name. It is much better than a coined name, for it shows that some man is proud of his creation. ([Location 1275](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B012H36OJS&location=1275)) - Tags: [[blue]]